“Here in the United States, and specifically in St. Louis, we’re dealing with the racial divide,” says festival executive director Cliff Froehlich, “but we will also be showing films that look at the concept of the divided city from a religious or ethnic perspective.”

That includes Bogdan’s Journey, about activist Bogdan Białek’s fight to keep a post-Holocaust pogrom from being erased from Polish history. The Peacemaker profiles Padraig O’Malley, who used his own struggles with alcoholism as framework for international peace negotiations. “He’s going to be coming to St. Louis, along with the director,” Froehlich says, “so that will be a particularly intriguing program.”

“Doc Shorts: Black Lives Matter” showcases St. Louis and Missouri filmmakers. “Profiling Race” looks at Pastor Mike Higgins’ social justice work, including that in Ferguson. The 1970 short “More Than One Thing” follows a young Pruitt-Igoe resident. “We’ll also be showing an excerpt from Show Me Democracy, which deals with a black brunch protest that Black Lives Matter mounted at First Watch last year,” Froehlich says. “There’s also a film on the Mizzou campus protests and another piece on Ferguson from a Chicago filmmaker.”

Finally, the doc Two Trains Runnin’, fresh from the New York Film Festival, tracks the crossing paths of blues fans and Freedom Summer activists in 1964. “It has the perspective of the blues musicians, who were victims of Jim Crow and racism,” Froehlich says, “but it’s also about the activism related to voter registration and the civil rights movement.”

SLIFF has made many of the screenings free, Froehlich adds, to make them as accessible as possible. The other aim is to spark discussion—and to push us to question these divides in our own lives.

The St. Louis International Film Festival runs November 3–13. For ticket, venue, and schedule info, visit cinemastlouis.org.

Other things Froehlich encourages you to circle in your festival program:

Charles Burnett Lifetime Achievement Award: “We’re going to be showing his classic Killer of Sheep on November 6, at Central Library. He is truly the preeminent African-American filmmaker—he has roots back in the ’60s.”

Milwaukee 53206: “Milwaukee’s been in the news recently because of racial troubles there. This doc arrived before that but specifically addresses those very issues.”

Gentlemen of Vision: Frank Popper (Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?) profiles Gentlemen of Vision, a step group led by Riverview Gardens guidance counselor Marlon Wharton. The doc screened on KETC (Channel 9), but SLIFF will screen a full director’s cut and host a performance by the Gentlemen of Vision themselves.